The structure of an urban area is defined by the systems of public spaces and mobility. This paper will consider the two of them as a unique framework able to reshape urban fabric by generating a transformative process.

Abstract

After comparing various practices taken in developing and developed metropolis in different continents, this paper argues the putting together of sustainable people-oriented, smart, flexible and adaptable spaces, as a fundamental approach to start an urban regenerative process, able to adapt to different social contexts as the metropolis evolve.Today’s urban crises, especially in developing world, has come as a result of the global tendency of fast rural-urban migration. Many regulatory/strategic plans that have tried to control and guide this development has failed, in some cases even before its approval. More than ever, we need to employ another philosophy of action to face this phenomenon. A process, which develops together with the city, must lead this expansion. We consider the system of public sphere as the sum of two systems; public spaces (plazas, sidewalks, bike lanes and pathways); and urban mobility (different types of public transport), which would create a continuous framework that penetrates and connects the whole urban texture. The main goals of this framework, social equity and mixture, should be achieved by creating; sustainable, safe, accessible, adaptable, flexible, livable, attractive, healthy and smart public spaces supported by urban mobility.The process of urban expansion can be afforded only by another process that goes in parallel and absorbs it as time passes by. Considering that; it is transport what brought solutions and at the same time most of the problems in our cities; and that public space is what strengthen urban identity by promoting sociality and reinforcing social security, the thinking of the two of them as a single framework, this would guarantee the starting of a regenerative process overall urban fabric.Tirana city, the capital of Albania, is taken as a case study of developing metropolis in the region of South-East Europe to describe the effects of the passage from a strong dictatorship to a democratic system within a given sociocultural evolution.